One of the more powerful attributes of the mechatronic approach to design is its inherent sustainability. If you’ve ever played with a Lego set, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Lego’s let you build almost anything and then just as easily rebuild it into almost anything else. That’s one of the ingredients of true sustainability and it stems from the modular, scalable nature of the Lego connection system.

Today’s mechatronic design methodology possesses similar attributes. Not only is it modular and scalable, it’s also logical and expressive. Like Lego’s, mechatronics unlocks incredible creative power, helping engineers express their ideas, especially in terms of software. In a sense, both systems are “programmable,” and therein lies their sustainability.

For more on this thought-provoking topic, see my editorial in the August 2008 issue of Motion System Design.

It’ll help if you’re familiar with Greek, or at least the word logos. This seems to tie it all together and adds to the educational value of the discovery process.

As much as math is the foundation of engineering, it is equally so for mechatronic design. In fact, we might even say mechatronic design is an expression of math — analytical, intuitive, physical, and logical — extending from the mind of the designer to the framework and functionality of the design itself.

One of the key qualities of this mechatronic math is its multi-variable nature, accounting for the combined influence of mechanical and computational functions. In its highest form, it is also non-linear, meaning the result of the components working together exceeds the sum of the results of each component working alone. Don’t bother trying to use superposition to analyze mechatronic systems; it doesn’t work.

Perhaps the best way to analyze a mechatronic system is at the signal level. It is here where the mechanical and computational worlds overlap and where the math universally applies, especially in terms of software. One of the best definitions I’ve heard on mechatronics hits at this point. “Mechatronics,” says Dr. Jim Trouchard, founder of National Instruments, “is anything that brings machine functions closer to the software level,” the domain of math.

My advice to anyone who wants to be a master of mechatronics is brush up on applied math, signal dynamics, and actuator and sensor physics. After that, figure out how to bring it all to the software level — from design and test to implementation and control — and you will have a competitive edge that will serve you well for some time.

(Lesson strength: Insight/6, Knowledge/5, Inspiration/7, Application/3; Lesson time:<5 min)

Welcome to my on-line classroom and the second in a series of brainstorms on the technological mashup known as mechatronics. Today we look back to one of the most significant developments in the history of this interdisciplinary design philosophy.

It was June 1968. I had just finished the 3rd grade, and was beginning to develop my skills in the fine art of match lighting and tossing lit smoke bombs. I was also learning to swim, and spent many nights riding my bike (sometimes no handed) under the streetlights that illuminated my neighborhood on Cleveland’s west side.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, an engineer by the name of Ted Hoff, one of Intel Corp.’s earliest hires, was called on to work with a customer trying to build a solid-state calculator. Hoff studied the proposed design, based on 12 custom ICs, but wasn’t convinced it was the optimum solution. He proved himself right when he discovered an alternative (single-chip) approach that relied not on hardware operations but on “programming” sequences that manipulated data using memory and register functions.

Thus the microprocessor was born, putting silicon and steel — and by extension, mechanical and electrical engineering — on a collision course of meteoric proportions, the impact of which has been felt for some time. In fact, the first microprocessors were used almost entirely in industrial controllers, overseeing mechanical components and systems.

That’s all you need to know for today.

Be sure to check this link on your way out.

BIRTH OF THE MICROPROCESSOR

(Lesson strength: Insight/8, Knowledge/5, Inspiration/4; Application/2; Lesson time:<5 min)

Hi [your name here].

Welcome to my on-line classroom, the focal point of the Mechatronic Design community.

It’s now [note current time], so let’s get started.

This is an AP/AP course, the latest thing in on-line education. I’m not exactly certain what AP/AP stands for (even though I made it up), but it has to do with learning a lot very quickly and getting out of class before you have time to get bored.

Now before we dismiss — see what I mean, now, about fast — I’d like to distribute a handout that will help focus our next few discussions on mechatronics as well as broaden our understanding of the concept itself.

When I began talking about mechatronics nearly 20 years ago, I quickly learned that the few people who claimed familiarity often couldn’t agree on what it actually meant. The handout, a takeoff on the allegorical story of the “blind men and the elephant,” explains why.

Interdisciplinary (mechatronic) design manifests itself on many levels and is practiced and viewed from multiple perspectives. Getting into a conversation on it without some sort of diagram or map would be as pointless as asking the “six men of Indostan” (see link below) to convince each other what an elephant is.

For the next few sessions, we’re going to look at the different characters in the drawing — including the two men who are completely “out of touch” — and explore the perspectives they represent.

Class dismissed.

See ya’ back in a few, and please sign in if you haven’t already.

The Blind Men and the Elephant